Home | Robb Willer

Robb Willer is a Professor of Sociology at Stanford University (with courtesy appointments in Psychology and the Graduate School of Business). He directs the Politics and Social Change Lab and co-directs the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.

He studies politics, democracy, social change, and the social impacts of artificial intelligence.

Popular Writing

This Is What Makes Protests Successful

Here’s what persuades Americans to support democracy over party

Why Progressive Candidates Should Invoke Conservative Values

How can the U.S. help prevent more political violence?

Opinion: Why the January 6 hearings could be a game changer

The Key to Political Persuasion

Featured Videos

Voelkel, J. G., Ashokkumar, A., Abeles, A. T., Crawford, J., Fuller, K., Redekopp, C., Bongiorno, R., Campbell, T. H., Ecker, U., Feinberg, M., Hart, P. S., Hornsey, M., Jost, J., Kay, A., Leiserowitz, A., Lewandowsky, S., Maibach, E., Nisbet, E., Pidgeon, N., Spence, A., van der Linden, S., Wolsko, C. V., Willenbring, J. K., Malhotra, N., & Willer, R. 2026. A Registered Report Megastudy on the Persuasiveness of the Most-Cited Climate Messages. Nature Climate Change.

Gallegos, I. O., Shani, C., Shi, W., Bianchi, F., Gainsburg, I., Jurafsky, D., & Willer, R. In Press. Labeling Messages as AI-Generated Does Not Reduce Their Persuasive Effects. PNAS Nexus.

Policy Brief: AI Labeling, Thread: Labeling AI Content

Frederiksen, K., Willer, R., Petersen, M. In Press. The Way Back After Backsliding: Public Opinion and the Restoration of Democracy. Comparative Political Studies.

Hall, M. E. K., Solomon, B. C., Voelkel, J. G., Stagnaro, M. N., Chu, J., & Willer, R. 2025. Durably Reducing Partisan Animosity through Multiple Scalable Treatments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Bai, H., Voelkel, J. G., Muldowney, S., Eichstaedt, J. C., & Willer, R. 2025. LLM-Generated Messages Can Persuade Humans on Policy Issues. Nature Communications.